American cities are very spread out, and most heavy industrial sites are located in suburbs or in the middle of nowhere. Destroying parts of Manhattan or Capitol Hill might have some psychological effect, but does nothing to dampen the ability of the U.S. in continue fighting a protracted war. If you want to fight a nuclear war with the U.S., you would need megaton-type warheads to maximize destruction and casualties. A few fission bombs will not hamper America's ability to wage war continuously. On the contrary, China and other Asian countries are characterized by everything (especially strategic heavy industries and research facilities) locating in the middle of major cities (Shanghai, Wuhan, Dalian, Hefei, etc.), so dozens of W88s and W87s would be enough to bring China to its knees. I am not saying the U.S. is completely invulnerable, but you need a lot more (and much more powerful) warheads to inflict the same amount of damage to the U.S. as the U.S. could do with just a few warheads to China. However, this could change overnight if China were to enter a war economy and relocate most heavy industries to mountainous areas (say suburbs of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Ningxia, Western Hunan, Western Hubei, etc.), especially all the underground tunnels China already has.
China Ballistic Missiles and Nuclear Arms Thread
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The trend is towards lower yield but more efficient mirved warheads
megaton warheads are not efficient
also, neither China nor other the US can stomach the loss of a city like NYC or Shanghai
It will be a wakeup moment for the world that this is the not direction we want to go
megaton warheads are not efficient
also, neither China nor other the US can stomach the loss of a city like NYC or Shanghai
It will be a wakeup moment for the world that this is the not direction we want to go
Many members here do not read Chinese. Without translation into English, your sarcasm (towards Sergio) could be very misunderstood by others.Sergio, with his ineffable and transcendental infallible wisdom, know deep in his heart those 650kt warheads weigh a lot more. That Chinese lightest warheads are 600-1000 kilograms.
You best be prepared to kowtow to Sergio wisdom and go chastise yourself for your wrong thoughts.
Please ignore the info in photo below and defer to Sergio as Sergio wisdom is supreme.
@AndrewS, this is material from one of series nation wide defense information sharing/education program some years ago, which was widely discussed in this forum.
DF-41, longest range is 14000km.
Its warheads are:
- one 5.5 mega-tonne thermonuclear warhead weighing 1.6 tonne.
- or six 650 kilo-tonne thermonuclear warheads, each weighing 250kg.
- or ten 150 kilo-tonne fission warheads, each weighing 165kg.
First test launch: July 24th, 2012
A list of regions that can be targeted if Mainland is hit would be -
1. Jerusalem ( The "silent majority" of Americans have a higher regard for this city than any city of America. The ultimate psychological destruction can be caused with this). Nothing can top that.
2. New York ( Fin-Tech hub) and Washington DC (administrative HQ)
4. Great Lakes ( All the five freshwater lakes are interconnected.) Salt and Spice!
5. Facilities under NNSA and other Biological and Chemical Weapons facilities of US ( Chinese Intelligence agencies do know about them)
7. Most fertile food producing plains of the country.
8. Shipbuilding facilities, Fort Knox, Reserves.
Nuclear fallout modelling are done using troves of Geography,Soil,Wind and Climate data. Detailed data for these are easy to compile for countries like US. Specifically designed warheads (salted/ atmospheric suspended/ fallout etc) can have very harsh and long drawn out impact if dropped at the "right" place. It would have more effect than dropping a 50 Megaton bomb in some other place that may seem attractive.
America can do the same to China. Maybe target the great Rivers? American can drop warheads keeping in mind Chinese Wind and precipitation patterns.
Honestly, if the USSR and USA never engaged in a nuclear slug-fest, I don't think China and US would. Things could go south anytime, but the chances are slim.
Broccoli
Senior Member
That 650kt warhead weighting 250kg is strange (if you compare it to 470kg DF-31 warhead) and 1.6ton 5.5MT warhead must be original DF-5 warhead as it weights about the same.
150kt fission warhead would be a lot heavier due it needing vast quantaties of plutonium among other difficulties... seems like a nonsensical weapon in our modern context. Could be that they didn't want to disclose weights of newer warheads so figures were tweaked for public viewing?
MR-31 warhead
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I don't know whether or not the figures of DF-41 is twisted on purpose, I am only translating what the slide says. On the other hand, where do the warhead figures of DF-31 and DF-5 come from? There were no publications from Chinese source as far as I know. It all depends whom you believe. I myself would equally disbelieve western "experts" if the Chinese figures are deemed "unrealistic".
About the fission bomb, I have no idea of "plutonium being heavier", nor do I know if Chinese fission bombs are plutonium based.
[QUOTE="shanlung, post: 575588]
Partial extract
How will the Patriot systems in USA defend against ICBMs coming in at speed of Mach 25 when they cannot even detect missiles at sub Mach or even know where the missiles came from despite overlapping coverage?
Allies of the country that nuke China will not go unpunished as well. Whether they could not stop USA or do not want to stop USA or USA do not want to listen to them will be irrelevant to China.
A nuked China will be very very weak. And China recalled the days where the British and French and Japan and USA came to carve her up when China was weak.
China will not allow that to happen again. China will ensure those countries will be weaker than a nuked China, or exist only in name after a nuked China
So please let peace prevail and it is irrelevant whether you think China only got 260 nukes
The lucky ones will be those that die in the first micro second.
Those still alive a year later will wish they gone at the very beginning.
And why the war fought or even started, no one will give a flying f**k as to the reasons.
Even so, China never ever threatened to use nukes. Other than if nuke used on China, China will retaliate and use nukes as well.
So please be peaceful and respectful and more courtesy, and no more phony FONOPs and playing games of who will blink with China with phony FONOPs. Do not play with fire regarding Taiwan. AND DO NOT THREATEN TO NUKE CHINA.[/QUOTE]
As said before.
If even one nuke hit China or Chinese forces in the sea,
China promised never to use the first nuke. But if just one nuke land on China or her forces, ALL THE USA BASES FROM EUROPE, DIEGO GARCIA , SINGAPORE . JAPAN AND USA HERSELF WILL BE SEAS AND LAKES OF MOLTEN MULTI COLOR GLASS.
None of the USA carriers will be spared. The carriers will be taken out with nukes even if the carriers hide in Frisco Bay or in the Atlantic Ocean or any other ocean.
Allies of the country that nuke China will not go unpunished as well. Whether they could not stop USA or do not want to stop USA or USA do not want to listen to them will be irrelevant to China.
A nuked China will be very very weak. And China recalled the days where the British and French and Japan and USA came to carve her up when China was weak.
China will not allow that to happen again. China will ensure those countries will be weaker than a nuked China, or exist only in name after a nuked China
Partial extract
How will the Patriot systems in USA defend against ICBMs coming in at speed of Mach 25 when they cannot even detect missiles at sub Mach or even know where the missiles came from despite overlapping coverage?
Allies of the country that nuke China will not go unpunished as well. Whether they could not stop USA or do not want to stop USA or USA do not want to listen to them will be irrelevant to China.
A nuked China will be very very weak. And China recalled the days where the British and French and Japan and USA came to carve her up when China was weak.
China will not allow that to happen again. China will ensure those countries will be weaker than a nuked China, or exist only in name after a nuked China
So please let peace prevail and it is irrelevant whether you think China only got 260 nukes
The lucky ones will be those that die in the first micro second.
Those still alive a year later will wish they gone at the very beginning.
And why the war fought or even started, no one will give a flying f**k as to the reasons.
Even so, China never ever threatened to use nukes. Other than if nuke used on China, China will retaliate and use nukes as well.
So please be peaceful and respectful and more courtesy, and no more phony FONOPs and playing games of who will blink with China with phony FONOPs. Do not play with fire regarding Taiwan. AND DO NOT THREATEN TO NUKE CHINA.[/QUOTE]
As said before.
If even one nuke hit China or Chinese forces in the sea,
China promised never to use the first nuke. But if just one nuke land on China or her forces, ALL THE USA BASES FROM EUROPE, DIEGO GARCIA , SINGAPORE . JAPAN AND USA HERSELF WILL BE SEAS AND LAKES OF MOLTEN MULTI COLOR GLASS.
None of the USA carriers will be spared. The carriers will be taken out with nukes even if the carriers hide in Frisco Bay or in the Atlantic Ocean or any other ocean.
Allies of the country that nuke China will not go unpunished as well. Whether they could not stop USA or do not want to stop USA or USA do not want to listen to them will be irrelevant to China.
A nuked China will be very very weak. And China recalled the days where the British and French and Japan and USA came to carve her up when China was weak.
China will not allow that to happen again. China will ensure those countries will be weaker than a nuked China, or exist only in name after a nuked China
Hyperwarp
Captain
Yeah, no. Just no.A model of DF-41 with MIRVs. Not sure if this is accurate or official at all.
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